Cooling tower



1957 c. w. KALTHOFF, JR 2,780,447

COOLING TOWER INVENTOR Glades W [12?] 2710/73:

Filed March 1, 1955 ATTORNEYS accommodate such a large object.

United States Patent COOLING TOWER Charles W. Kalthoff, Jr. Knoxville,Tenn. Application March 1, 1955, Serial No. 491,246

' 6 Claims. (Cl. 261-111) This invention relates to a cooling tower, andmore particularly, to a cooling tower of the type used to bring about anintimate contact between a liquid and a gas for heat exchange purposes.I

Cooling towers of the type with which this invention is concerned arefrequently employed in large air conditioning systems, The wateremployed as the cooling medium in the condenser of such a system must bemaintained at a relatively low temperature in order for the system tooperate properly. The maintenance of the proper temperature in thecooling water circulating system is the function assigned to the coolingtower.

The heated water from the condenser is usually pumped up to the roof ofthe building in which the air conditioning system is employed, and thereit is sprayed from nozzles onto a plurality of groups of superposed,inclined slats. Air, at atmospheric temperature, a temperature lowerthan the temperature of the water, passes between the slats of each ofthe groups. Consequently, as the water trickles down from one slat toanother in the several groups, it is brought into intimate contact withthe air, and its temperature is lowered. The cooled water is thencollected in a container at the base of the cooling tower from which itis returned to the condenser of the air conditioning system.

The cooling towers employed in many systems must be very large in orderto handle the substantial quantities of water being used. The size ofthese large cooling towers has made installation of them a troublesomematter. If the cooling tower is assembled at the factory, ditficulty maybe encountered in getting it onto the roof of the building where it isto be used, because the various openings normally provided in buildingsare not designed to Furthermore, the shipping of a factory assembledcooling tower is unnecessarily expensive.

The alternative to shipping a cooling tower to the point of use inassembled form is, of course, to construct the cooling tower right atthe place where it is to be used. With the prior art constructions,however, this method was not an economical one. The advantages offactory production had to be abandoned altogether in many cases, leavingthe job one of custom construction. Additionally, the places where thecooling towers were to be located frequently were unsafe places for thebuilders to work.

This invention overcomes the difficulties noted above by providing acooling tower which can be shipped from the factory in partly assembledform. Then, at the point of use, the various subassemblies may beconnected together to form the completed cooling tower. The constructionis such that the erection of the cooling tower at the point of use maybe accomplished by one man with- .outthe use of screws, nails, orwelding apparatus.

., The cooling tower of this invention is shipped from the factory as apackage or packages of subassemblies. These subassemblies include a basein the form of a con- .tainer which is ultimately to receive the cooledwater after its passage through the cooling zone of the device,

2,780,447 Patented Feb. 5, 1957 connecting together the slat panels.

The corner construction of the cooling tower of this invention is anovel one, and it permits the assembly of the apparatus without the useof conventional fasteners. Each of the slat panels has upright membersat its ends, and adjacent ones of the upright members are configured sothat they may be interlocked. Each of the corner members is adapted tocooperate with one pair of interlocked upright members to preventseparation thereof. The positioning of the corner members involvesnothing more than sliding them into the guideways provided by theconfiguration of the uprights. With all four of the corner constructionscompleted, the structure becomes a stable side wall unit. This unit hasoutside dimensions which correspond to the inside dimensions of the baseor container member of the cooling tower so that when the lower end ofthe side wall unit is disposed within the container, it will besupported by the side walls of the container to prevent tilting. Theside wall unit need not be fixed to the base member.

A better understanding of this invention and its advantages will begained from a consideration of a detailed description of the embodimentillustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a plan view of a cooling tower according to this invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view along the line 22 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view along the line 33 inFig. l and Fig. 4 is an enlarged horizontal cross-sectional view alongthe line 4-4 in Fig. 2.

The cooling tower is supported by suitable legs such as those indicatedby the numerals 2 in Fig. 2. These legs are permanently attached to abase or container member 4 by welding or other suitable means. However,in some installations, it is contemplated that the container 4 will restdirectly upon the supporting surface and that the legs 2 will beomitted.

The container 4 is of sheet metal construction. It includes a bottomwall 6 and four side walls 8. Each of the side walls is rolled over atits upper edge as indicated by the numeral 10 in the drawings, toprovide a stitfening flange, and the side walls are connected to eachother by means of corner flaps 12, which also serve to make the cornerswatertight.

Positioned within and extending upwardly from the container 4 is a sidewall unit 14. This unit is composed of four slat panels 16, 18, 20 and22, arranged in a rectangle and connected together by corner members 24.Each of the slat panels includes a group of superposed slats 26. Each ofthe slats 26 slopes downwardly toward the inside of the cooling tower,and the slats of each group overlap vertically to some extent as shownin Fig. 2.

Positioned above the side wall unit 14 in any suitable manner is a groupof spray nozzles 30 for directing the water to be cooled onto theinclined slats of the side wall unit. A suitable conduit 32 supplies thewater to the spray nozzles 30.

In operation, the water to be cooled is introduced into the coolingtower by means of the spray nozzles 30 in such a way that it movesdownwardly over the slats of the side wall unit. Drops of water rolldown the surface of a slat, and at the lower end of that slat,surfacetension imparts a force to the drops directing themoutwardly aswithdrawn from the container 4 through suitable outlet-openings, to bereturned to the condenser of the air conditioning system. In thedrawings, the outlet opening for the container 4 is in the form of anoverflow pipe 34, welded to the bottom -'6 of the container. Thearrangement is such that there can be no leakage at the joint betweenthe bottom of the container and the pipe 34. It will be understood thatthe overflow pipe type of outlet is illustrated merely as an-exarnpleand that other types may be used, either in 'place of, or in combinationwith that shown. These are conventional'in the art, and need not bedescribed in detail.

The construction of the several slat panels is similar, and adescription of panel 20 will make the construction of all of themapparent. The panel 20 is composed of two spaced apart, verticaluprights 36 extending from its top to its bottom. The slats 26 includevertical end flanges 38, the outer faces of which bear against the innerfaces of the two uprights 36. The flanges 38 are secured to the uprights36 by spot welding, as indicated by the dotted lines to which thenumeral 40 is applied in the drawings.

The slat panel 16 is exactly the same as the slat panel 20 justdescribed. The slat panels 18 and 22 difier from panel 20 only in theconfiguration of the uprights to which the slats are secured. Theuprights for the panels 18 and 22 are designated by the numeral 42 inthe drawings. The difference will become clear from a description of thenovel corner construction of the cooling tower of this invention.

As best shown in Fig. 4, the upright 36 has turnedover outer and inneredge portions 44 and 46, respectively. The configuration is such as toprovide guideways along the edge portions of the upright on the sidethereof opposite that to which :the slats 26 are secured.

Each of the uprights 42 has a turned-overiouter edge portion 43 and alaterally extending flange portion '50 at its inner edge. Theturned-over edge '48 is similar in all respects to the turned-over outeredge 44 of the upright 36. The lateral flange portion 50, however, isadapted to interlock with the turned-over inner edge portion 46 of theupright 36, as shown in Fig. 4.

The interlocked uprights 36 and 42 are held in the position shown inFig. 4 by .means of a corner member 24, composed of a piece of sheetmetal'52 of angular configuration, and of at least one triangularbracing piece 54 welded to the two sides of the piece of angularconfiguration to fix the angle between its two sides as a right angle.The ends of the piece '52 fit within the guideways formed by theturned-over outer edge portions 44 and 48 of the two cooperatinguprights 36 and 42.

With the corner member in place, the adjacent slat panels are rigidlyconnected together. Referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that theinterlock between the flange 50 and the turned-over inner edge portion46 is such as to prevent either inward or .outward movement of theupright 42 relative to the upright 36. It will also be seen that endwisemovement in one direction of the panel 22, that is the panel of whichthe upright '42 is a part, isprevented by the presence of the cornermember '24. Endwise movement ofthis panel in the opposite, direction isprevented by the relationship existing between the inner edge portionsof the two uprights 36 and 42. Upon consideration, it will be apparentthat the panel 20 is also firmly locked in position against movement inany direction.

In practice, it is intended that the cooling tower of this invention beshipped from the factory in kit 'form. The base or container member 4,with the legs 2 attached wh'ere legs are to be used, is made up infinished 'form and constitutes one element of the ,kit. Each of the sidewall panels is constructed at the factory, and each of them forms anelement of the kit. The corner members for connecting adjacent slatpanels together the various parts be very close.

complete the kit.

The kit is shipped to the point of use, and there, the elements areassembled to form the complete cooling tower. The assembling operationis very simple. All that need be done is to position a pair of slatpanels, such as the panels 20 and 22, along adjacent sides of thecontainer 4, with the flange on the upright 42 of the panel 22interlocked with the turned-over inner edge portion 46 of the upright 36of the panel 20 in the manner shown in Fig. 4. In nearly all cases, theparts can be moved to this position by one man and held there with onehand. This leaves the other hand of the worker free to manipulate thecorner member 24 comprisingthe angular piece of sheet metal 52. Thecorner member is lifted into a position in which its lower edges may beinserted into the passageways formed by the turned-over outer edgeportions 44 and 48 of the cooperating uprights. Then, it is allowed tomove downwardly in these passageways by gravity as far as it will go.This completes the connection between panels 20 and 22.

The worker then moves the panel 16 into the position shown in Fig. 1,with the turned-over end portion 46 of one -of its uprights 36cooperating with the flange '50 on the'opposite one of the uprights 42of the panel 22. A careful study of Fig. 1 will show that bringing thepanel 16 into the desired position presents no problem when no cornermembers 24 have been associated with it and when its edge opposite theone being interlocked withthe panel '22 is free. With the panel 16 inits proper position with respect to the panel 22, the Workman locksthese two'panels together by inserting another one ofthe corner members24. I

At this moment, the structure is a fairly stable one,

and the workman may use both hands in positioning the last one 18'of theslot panels.

In many cases the positioning of this panel will present no problem.However, in some situations, it is desirable that the fit between Withthe illustrated construction, the assembly of close fitting parts may becompleted by merely lifting the panel 18 so that the bottom ends of theflanges 50 on its uprights 42 may be lowered by gravity into thepassageways'formed by the turned-over inner edge portions 46 of theuprights ofthe panels 16 and 20. With the panel 18 in position, theassembling operation is completed by inserting the remaining ones of thecorner members 24.

The bearing areas between the side walls 8 of the container 4 and the'outer edges of the uprights 36 and 42 of the several slat panels, andthe bearing areas betweenthebottom f the container and the bottoms oftheuprights are substantial, and, since the side Wall unit is fixed inits rectangular shape, there need be no structural connection betweenthe side wall unit and the container member 4. A force sufiicient tocause relative movement between these parts would 'be sufiicient to ruinthe apparatus anyway.

'While a single embodiment of the invention has been described inconsiderable detail, various modifications and alterations will beapparent to persons skilled in the art.

It is intended, therefore, that the foregoing description should beconsidered as exemplary'only and that the scope of the invention shouldbe determined'from the following claims.

I claim:

1. A'cooling tower comprising a container having'side walls and a bottomwall, a plurality of slat panels each of which includesa pair of spaceduprights anda vertical series of inclined slats secured at their ends tosaid uprights, said slat'panels'heing supported by said container andarranged end-to-end in a closed outline with adjacent ones of saiduprights being interlocked, each pair of" terlocked uprights including afirst upright having w and inner vertical guideways and a second uprightha i an outer vertical guideway and an inner flange disposed Within theinner vertical guideway of said first upright, and a plurality of cornermembers each of which includes side portions disposed within the outerguideways of a pair of interlocked uprights to hold said uprights ininterlocked relation.

2. A collapsible side wall unit comprising a plurality of verticalpanels arranged end-to-end in a closed outline with adjacent ends ofsaid panels in interlocked relation; each pair of interlocked panel'endsincluding a first panelend having outer and inner vertical guidewaysopen at their adjacent edges and closed at their remote edges, and asecond panel-end having a flange extending laterally from its inner edgeinto the inner guideway of said first panel-end, and an outer verticalguideway open at its inner edge and closed at its outer edge; and aplurality of corner members each of which includes side portionsdisposed at a fixed angle with respect to each other and extending intothe outer guideways of a pair of interlocked panel-ends to hold them ininterlocked relation.

3. A cooling tower comprising a container closed at its sides andbottom; a plurality of slat panels each of which includes a pair ofspaced uprights resting upon the bottom of said container and contactingthe inner surfaces of the sides of said container, and a vertical seriesof slats secured at their ends to said uprights; said slat panels beingarranged end-to-end in a closed outline with adjacent ones of saiduprights being interlocked; each pair of interlocked uprights includinga first upright having inner and outer vertical guideways open at theirproximate edges and closed at their remote edges, and a second uprighthaving a flange extending into the inner guideway of said first uprightand an outer vertical guideway open at its inner edge and closed at itsouter edge; and a plurality of corner members each of which includes anangular element and a brace secured to said element to hold the sidesthereof at a fixed angle, the sides of each of said elements beingdisposed so as to extend into the outer guideways of a pair ofinterlocked uprights to hold them together.

4. A cooling tower comprising a rectangular container closed at itssides and its bottom but being open at its top, four panels of slatsresting freely upon the bottom of said container and extending upwardlyfrom said container, each of said panels including a pair of spaceduprights contacting at their lower end portions one of the sides of saidcontainer and a series of superposed inclined slats secured at theirends to said uprights, the uprights of opposite ones of said panelsbeing similar and adjacent ones of said uprights being interlocked, oneupright in each pair of interlocked uprights having turned-over innerand outer edge portions defining vertical guideways open at theirproximate edges, the other upright in each pair of interlocked uprightshaving a turned-over outer edge portion defining a vertical guidewayopen at its inner edge and a lateral flange extending into the guidewaydefined by the turned'over inner edge portion of said one upright, andfour corner members each of which includes side portions disposed atright angles with respect to each other 6 and extending into theguideways defined by the turnedover outer edge portions of a pair ofinterlocked uprights to detachably secure said panels together in theform of a rectangular side wall unit.

5. A cooling tower comprising a rectangular container closed at itssides and its bottom but being open at its top, four panels of slatsresting freely upon the bottom of said container and extending upwardlyfrom said container, each of said panels including a pair of spaceduprights contacting at their lower end portions one of the sides of saidcontainer and a series of superposed inclined slats secured at theirends to said uprights, the uprights of opposite ones of said panelsbeing similar and adjacent ones of said uprights being interlocked, oneupright in each pair of interlocked uprights having turnedover inner andouter edge portions defining vertical guideways open at their proximateedges, the other upright in each pair of interlocked uprights having aturned-over outer edge portion defining a vertical guideway open at itsinner edge and a lateral flange extending into the guideway defined bythe turned-over inner edge portion of said one upright, four cornermembers each of which includes side portions disposed at right angleswith respect to each other and extending into the guideways defined bythe turned-over outer edge portions of a pair of interlocked uprights todetachably secure said panels together in the form of a rectangular sidewall unit, means for spraying liquid onto the slats of said side wallunit, and means for removing liquid from said rectangular con tainer.

6. A cooling tower kit adapted to be assembled at the point of usecomprising a rectangular container open at its top and closed at itssides and bottom, four slat panels each of which includes a pair ofspaced uprights and a series of superposed inclined slats secured attheir ends to said uprights, said uprights including a first group offour identical uprights each of which has turned-over inner and outeredge portions defining, respectively, inner and outer vertical guidewaysopen at their proximate edges, said uprights also including a secondgroup of four vertical uprights each of which has a lateral flange atits inner edge and a turned-over outer edge portion defining a verticalguideway open at its inner edge, said uprights being arranged so thatone from said first group may be disposed adjacent one from said secondgroup in assembling said tower and so that each of said flanges may beinserted into one of said inner vertical guideways to innerlock adjacentones of said uprights, and four corner members each of which includesside portions disposed at right angles with respect to each other andadapted to be inserted into the guideways defined by the turned-overouter edge portions of adjacent uprights.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,757,664 Gohmann May 6, 1930 1,846,485 Hart Feb. 23, 1932 2,534,161Collins Dec. 12, 1950 2,540,091 Brackney Feb. 9, 1951

